The Towers dropped to their
knees in abject despair.  Gone
were the friends who decorated
the windows, hallways, and
who wore flowers in their hair.

Gone were the days and nights
of light shows on hanging
gardens.  The Towers fell down
in pieces that no Kingsmen
could put together again.  Time
screamed in tatters of suits
and dresses.  The restaurant's
water boiled.  The Maitre 'd dropped to his knees, fell
through the floor.

The Towers were gone to
soldiers everyone.  More
elusive were the fragments
of burned bodies.  The screams
tore through the morning.
Sirens drowned the bells
and still the sounds of sudden
grit-filled voices cry.

The Towers brought more
sorrow to the flowers still
showing in the tears of lost
souls watching an end to
mercy.

Never to leave the shadows
of nightmares, the Towers
will live on in perpetually
beating hearts.   No one
forgets the morning the
sunlight was betrayed by the soulless murderers whose airplanes slit the air like silver bombs. Rogue foreign pilots with death scheduled for our
September morning.

We will continue our elegiac
song of Remembering.

Forever.



Caroline Shank
9.11.20

It's a movie afternoon.  On the
menu today is Stephen King.
Pennywise, gruesome and
gore.  Sit tight the clown
is coming. Up and over,
round and round.  Balloons
rip the fragile air,  Screams
tear through today.

The sewer is full of blood.
The axel-tree is full of mud.
I see it in the look of his
face.  "I'm coming!" is his
insistent cry.

Who's in there now? Go in
and see. I am bound to a
mixture of fear.  Stir me up.
Tap off the movie.  He is
scared even as he writes.

I turn around and see the
clown.  He melts into me.
I only know enough
to run scared.

I am bound for the after-
noon train to Derry.

Caroline Shank

Morning drips in like coffee.
I think of you. It is the
hardest time.  I begin the
day in sips. My tongue
burns with greed.

You seep in through the
slats of my sleepy windows.
The day starts with memory.
Your red hair curls
around the sun.  I reach out to
touch you.  I want to kiss
the blue of your eyes across
the table.

I, sadly, drink the dregs of
my morning, wash the azure
off my face and dry my tears
to carry me through to
tomorrow.

Mornings drip in like coffee.
I think of you.

Caroline Shank

You were always on the edge
of someone's disaster Mikey.
You sailed through days
with no wind.
Swam when the boat tipped,
sailed alone when it didn't.

You needed wings to soar above,
a paddle to stay upright.
You did not trust the water,
the air, the shore, the fire.

You were upside down,
you lost the rope.
you cut loose.

You are nobody's
adventure now.

Not even the rain.

Caroline Shank

I am Pandora. I have let everything escape.  My days are filled with searching. Mostly I look for you.

I can't gather the misguided
objects which surround me now. I
need to fight for the mountain
tops and silver lakes I knew
when we were young.

Are you still among the reeds
and shells of lost nights and
trodden days.  Memories dip
around me.

Say it isn't so, that you have
shorn your curls, pantsed your
youth and wiped the shy
calendar on the grass where
we talked into the night.

I try to return hope to the
broken  container but
it cuts my hands.  The
contents dive at me
like yellow birds in
a banana tree,

I am alone among the
troubles.  I am wrapped
in the moods of
silence.

I curve around the center,
gather your image
in my graying
locks.

Caroline Shank

The jukebox was the only light
in the tavern.  
We were alone in the dry
recess of a lonely world.
You sang in my ear while
I swayed to your rhythm.

The song was a long low
cry.  I was urgent
in your embrace.  

I am reminded of that night
you walked away from me in
the damp laundry of dawn.

Turn around to face me,
the climate of my lonely
arms.

Hold me again to the tick
of memory so I can,
once more, dance
close to you.

Regardez moi
mon amour.




Caroline Shank

I'm pretty easy to find.
All you have to do is
think of me.  I sigh
in your soul but you
can't feel me anymore.

I have started to move
now. Can you tell? I am
limber again after all the
years you have me buried
in your memory.

I come to you on a breeze.
I wake you up this
anniversary of our melody

and I sing about the air that
we breathed.  The last time
that we shared a joint

adventure

Caroline Shank